Artemi Panarin supporting Russian opposition leader

New York Rangers star winger Artemi Panarin showed his support for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Instagram post on Thursday, ahead of planned protests in his native country this weekend.

Panarin posted a photo of Navalny and his wife and two children, with a caption that translates to: "Freedom For Navalny."

Through a Rangers spokesperson, Panarin declined to comment further about the topic on Thursday.

Navalny, a high-profile critic of Russian President Vlaimir Putin, was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in August, and had been recovering at a hospital in Germany. Navalny returned to Russia on Sunday and was immediately arrested at the airport and sent to a Moscow…